One reason it didn't sell as well...the Westwood One radio program to promote it's release played the album in it's entirety the night before it was released, and they announced that they would in advance, so countless numbers of people just taped it off the radio instead of going out & buying it. (The album in 1979 cost more than the CD does NOW!)
Another thing, for as "raw" as it was supposed to be and such an "anti-corporate" album as it was philosophically supposed to be, the entire marketing strategy and subsequent tour proved that Fleetwood Mac was just as pompous as the new-wavers perceived them to be, rather than the "cutting edge" band that was supposed to be shown with "Tusk".
Lindsey may have been trying to get the band to be "The Clash" or the "Talking Heads" with "Tusk", but got just the opposite instead. Possibly, had they done a small club tour instead of some big "monsters of rock" type tour that they DID, the perception of them being "dinosaurs" may have been dispelled. But, alas, that's not what happened.
A quick follow-up studio album (instead of a live album and a flurry of solo albums) might've saved the life of the band. The "soul" & "spirit" of Fleetwood Mac shriveled & died somewhere between "Tusk" & "Mirage"; and, "Mirage" & "Tango In The Night were basically just done on "life support". The "transfusion" of Billy & Rick for "Behind The Mask" & Bekka Bramlett and Dave Mason for "Time" (which I thought were good ideas at the time) couldn't save them. Even "The Dance" didn't bring the dead back to life; it was a personal thing for them to reunite, but for the most part, they were going through the motions. Their "soul" & "spirit" is gone for good.
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